Van Gogh! Oh such a lovely line, it really is beautiful, (to any Whovians that read this, I thought of you.) Anyways, Van Gogh, a lot of people know him as this troubled artist who brought us amazing paintings and then tragically died when he was in his late thirties. (Yes, very sad.) I think of him as someone who knew how to dream. Obviously he wasn't completely right in the head, he had a mental problem (which I couldn't find out what it was, don't worry I did my research for this post.) But from what I can deduce, its very similar to depression, which many people suffer from each and every day. He poured himself into his art, his beautiful, amazing, breathtaking art.
Reading up on Van Gogh, its an amazing learning opportunity, (take ten minutes and learn a little about this famous artist). I learned that even when he went to go and receive treatment for his illness he couldn't. Because he would feed of the other patients at the asylum. Making him even worse. He then went home and according to a friend, Emily Bernard, "he left his easel behind a haystack and went behind the chateau and fired a revolver shot at himself."
Wow that's mad, to fire a gun at yourself? Though the bullet was thought to have missed important internal organs. When taken to a doctor, the doctor hoped to save him, but Van Gogh replied saying "Then I'll have to do it over again." Hell bent on just ending his life.
Not a lot of people take time to look at the artist behind the beautiful, famous paintings. I see a dreamer, someone who, beyond all the problems, poured himself into his work, someone who created beautiful things. Van Gogh had a amazing relationship with his brother, in fact when Van Gogh shot himself, his brother came to be with him until he died. His brother, Theo, even named his son Vincent Willem. I think that's simply amazing. I really do.
Now, my personal take on the quote (thank you for reading the small history lesson above! :) )
"I dream my painting and I paint my dream." How amazing would it be if our minds worked like that? to be able to take something that we dreamt and put it onto a canvas, what if we already do that? Like when you journal, your writing your deepest thoughts, your most personal dreams. EVERYTHING. You don't need to be skilled iwth a brush to be able to dream, I think Vincent really showed me that today. I can dream with my words, with my thoughts, with my actions. I can be a literal dreamer, making things happen. Vincent had a dream, he accomplished it. Yes while it's sad that he couldn't cope with everything around him; Vincent Van Gogh brought us beauty, art, wonder, all in the short time that he was with us.
So take a page from Vincent, the painter who didn't really had it all sorted. The painter who was able to bring his dreams to life. Take a page from someone, (me) whose life may not be going exactly the way she wants it to be. I struggle with things too, some are big and some are just petty things. But I do struggle, take a page from someone who writes their dreams. Take a page from someone who wants to turn sadness into beauty. Because, someday, I'll look back and I'll be happy that I did this.
Take a page from a dreamer. A painter, a writer, the believer.
-Birdy
"I dream my painting and I paint my dream"
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